New trial denied for Y-12 saboteurs

Monday

Oct 7, 2013 at 6:22 PM

U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar reportedly has denied a motion to acquit three self-proclaimed “protesters” on a charge of attempting to injure the national defense as the result of a widely publicized July 28, 2012, break-in at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

by Darrell Richardson

U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar reportedly has denied a motion to acquit three self-proclaimed “protesters” on a charge of attempting to injure the national defense as the result of a widely publicized July 28, 2012, break-in at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

The judge also refused to grant a new trial for the three who put themselves and others in harm’s way last summer and put the Oak Ridge community into a tail spin following the security breach.

All three defendants — 82-year-old (at the time of the offense) Megan Rice of Nevada; 63-year-old Michael Walli of Washington, D.C.; and 57-year-old Greg Boertje-Obed of Duluth, Minn. — were found guilty of sabotaging the Y-12 Plant and damaging federal property in May.

The Knoxville jury that found the “Plowshares” trio guilty took less than three hours to deliberate.

Authorities reported that the saboteurs cut through three security fences, as well as spray-painted slogans and splashed “human blood” on the walls of the fortress-like Highly Enriched Uranium Manufacturing Facility, a $549 million storage bunker housing the United States’ primary supply of bomb-grade uranium. The sprawling Y-12 complex of 800 acres and 500 buildings also makes nuclear warhead parts and provides nuclear fuel for the U.S. Navy and research reactors worldwide.

In an August 2012 talk radio interview, Rice said she and the two others had been willing to die inside the Oak Ridge facility had security guards used deadly force. Though the “activist” nun wouldn’t discuss details of the break-in during that interview, she did say, “It was not difficult.”

Last month, Thapar reportedly delayed a sentencing hearing for the trio. Sentencing, which had been set for September 2013, was reset for January 2014 in Knoxville.

Reports at the time stated numerous letters have been sent to the federal judge asking for leniency “and objecting to the government’s labeling of pacifists as terrorists.”

In his ruling this week, Thapar stated that even though “the defendants are entitled to their views regarding the morality of nuclear weapons … the defendants’ sincerely held moral beliefs are not a get-out-of-jail-free card that they can deploy to escape criminal liability.”

In an introductory statement, Thapar also noted the long-running controversy of maintaining a nuclear arsenal, according to a Knoxville News-Sentinel article being distributed by the The Associated Press.

“Reasonable people can disagree about the propriety of that decision,” the federal judge wrote. “But such disagreement, even if inspired by deeply held moral views, must be constrained by a respect for the law.”

Built in the midst of World War II, the Y-12 Plant’s initial job was to make enough enriched uranium for a new kind of bomb — an atomic bomb that helped bring WWII to an end. Since that time, Y-12’s mission has evolved, including playing a key role in helping win The Cold War.

Today, Y-12 remains a unique national asset in the manufacturing, processing and storage of special materials vital to our national security — and contributes to the prevention of the spread of weapons of mass destruction. More specifically, the nuclear science in Oak Ridge that ultimately ended a world war has led to innovative advancements in medicine that continue today.

Rice, Walli and Boertje-Obed currently remain in federal custody. The “Y-12 trio” faces up to 30 years in prison.